Hello from LT Miller April 19 2007

Hello all from Afghanistan. I hope all is well. We are wrapping up things and not taking on any new projects right now. I have completed some of my last missions and am focusing on Afghan Army training and evaluation for the next few weeks. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our reliefs appear to be in transit and we may have 2 sets on the way. Some Spanish have arrived and they claim they are the advance team for our replacements and a Navy team is on the way so we should be O.K. but knock on wood just in case. If all goes well we should be out of here in about a month and headed back to the U.S. I should be off of active duty sometime at the end of June or early July at the latest once our turnover and demobilization process is complete. Good news, the dam is complete and it is filling with water as you can see by the attached pictures (due to our local internet limitations I am sending the dam pictures separately). Total cost $25,500 including the flagpole! The local media has really been playing it up and the US Army is using it as a model for big bang for a little buck. Another reason why most of us could care less if Congress and the President ever sign the supplemental spending bill that seems to benefit spinach and peanut farmers more than the military. I am not sure what it will take to convince our leaders that it is not about more money; it is about effectively using the money we have. The dam was good training for the Afghan Army engineers that they can now use to go out to other areas on their own and do construction projects without U.S. supervision. The new Army team that has arrived is already planning another dam at Bazergon which I talked about and had pictures of the site a couple of messages ago. It will be at least twice the size and provide some jobs and a future water source for one of the poorest villages in this area. The smaller local projects really seem to have the most impact. Huge public works projects are great and needed to build up the infastructure but at this time the samller projects really are what the average Afghan needs. The average person really looks at basic needs and surveys indicate that a clean source of water is the number one need. You may also notice how much greener it is in the background in this set of pictures compared to ones I have sent earlier in my tour. It was an extremely wet winter and the crops and grasses are off to an early start. Lets hope this is the beginning of the end of a 15-year drought.

I have also visited my favorite village Bazergon for the last time. We passed out the remaining items we have received from many of you back home. Thank you all very much. This village is very appreciative of all we do to help them and they are also very generous with what little they have. The children are so much fun and will break your heart at the same time. It is a very isolated village and very poor but the most pleasant people I have ever met as a group. It is also the only time I have seen an adult show genuine affection for children here. There is one grandfather that picked up a little girl because she was crying and gave her a kiss and hug and she stopped. To an American this may seem normal but I can tell you that any display of affection toward a female no matter how small is very rare in Afghanistan. Public display of affection under the Taliban was punishable by a severe beating for males and death for women, The village had a picnic for us and it was really nice. We brought the rice and beans and they provided the goat. After we were done eating the children were allowed to eat the leftovers and at that point I think we all felt guilty of our good life. Not only did they eat all of the leftovers but they were licking our plates clean. I guess since I have never been so hungry that I would lick someone else's plate it really made me feel for the fight for survival these children have. It is sad to note that 1 out of 5 children born in Afghanistan do not make it past the age of 5. We ended up leaving them with a months worth of food and hope and pray that the crops will be good this year and get them by. On a little livelier note we brought root beer for the picnic and as we suspected the villagers had no idea what to do with the can. A young boy finally got a can open and the pop and fizz was the funniest thing to the children. Not half as funny as when he tried to drink out of the can with the hole on top and it went all over his face. You cannot imagine the laughter from the children and all of us. After about 5 minutes of pure laughing I showed him how to drink out of a can and you would have thought he was drinking pure enjoyment. It is the little things in life that really make you appreciate all you have.

Speaking of appreciation thanks for all of the wonderful birthday cards. I received lots of cards from schools, church, work, family and friends; it was very nice and made my birthday very special.
Take care and keep in touch.

LT John Miller USNARMY

Hello from LT Miller March 26, 2007

Happy New Year from Afghanistan. We are now in the year 1386 according to the Afghan calendar. It feels like 1386 according to our calendar when you look around at how far behind they are from the rest of the world. Afghanistan has had one of the wettest winters in recent years and it is really a blessing for the farmers. The dam is filling but I am unable to drive out to it. Unfortunately it is also great for the poppy growers. I attached a picture of a poppy field sprouting up to the south of us and if you look into the distance you will see a large tripod device which is a well being dug, funded by you guessed it, the United States. I still cannot figure out why we will not do a thing to wipe out the poppies. The Generals (both Afghan and U.S.) are afraid of upsetting the drug lords and President Karzi is afraid of making the growers angry (some of which are said to be his family members). The
United States has zero chance of changing anything here if we do not insist that the Afghans stop growing poppies. My plan would give them 4 months to wipe out the crop otherwise we do it. It may be tough for some people but it is the right thing to do. I think some of our leaders forgot a basic principle of leadership is to always do the right thing even if it is painful in the short run. I guarantee that the long run benefit of not having the drug money fund the Taliban and other criminal elements will be worth any short-term pain that may be involved. It will also go a long way to establish the rule of law here. Just because it makes money does not make it right.

On a positive note many schools will be opening this week as they begin the new school year. I look forward to it since I really miss the school visits. I also will be able to start passing out some of the school supplies many of you have sent. The children are fantastic. I actually see hope in their eyes when they are in school. Education is the only real hope for the future of Afghanistan. It gives the children
something to do instead of working in the fields or shops or sitting around doing nothing. We have all seen what happens to idle minds. They grow up not being able to think for themselves and become very impressionable. Think of the inner city gangs that influence the poor kids in the housing projects in the U.S. Then apply that to an entire country. This is also the first time in a couple of generations that there has been relative peace here. It may not seem like it to the rest of the world but the car bombings and IED attacks they have now are nothing compared to the all out war that has consumed this country for generations. The Afghan Army and Afghan police are out bearing the brunt of the attacks and fighting back, something that many people thought would never happen. If the Afghans can continue the education, wipe out the poppies and somehow get the Pakistani border under control this country may have a chance.

I am now working on the Afghan Army payroll system. As you can imagine there are not a lot of internal systems and controls set up in this country. Everyone expects to pay someone a portion of his wages to receive anything. That is just a part of the Afghan culture that is hard to break. Also there is no real banking system set up so everything is cash. They are starting to get the idea of the separation of duties
because before the same person kept attendance, submitted the payroll, picked up the cash and passed out the money. That person was also the complaint department if you had payroll problems and the person that you would bribe, I mean pay, I mean ask, to solve your problem. We have some controls in place now so it is better and the soldiers now expect to get their full pay. Not perfect but going in the right direction. On the political home front please do not believe any of our political
leaders when they say if Congress doesn't vote for this supplemental spending bill that politician will not be supporting our troops. Take a close look at those spending bills and you will see all sorts of things not even related to the wars. In fact they seem to be designed to get pork barrel projects approved that our politicians are too afraid or embarrassed to bring up on there own merits. That goes for both Democrats and Republicans! 99% of our equipment, personnel and supply funding comes from the annual defense budget. If the politicians really want to support the troops they will shut up and get to work and stop saying everything that is wrong is someone else's fault. Vote for John Miller for Congress!

Now on a lighter note I am including a photo of one of the things that I really will not miss. Outside of our U.S. base the bathroom facilities are interesting. This particular one is on a U.S. and Afghan compound in Bakwa. It has that open air feel to it. On another humorous note I was asked by one of the Afghan Officers I work with if I could bring him some medicine he was looking for. He kept saying it was a Swiss medicine but I could not figure out what he was talking about. I asked if a doctor gave it to him and he said no. He said it makes him feel good and relieves stress. I then thought well is it illegal (at least in the U.S.). He said he had an empty package and would bring it in. He came back the next day with the Swiss medicine bag and I instantly knew what he was talking about. After I stopped laughing I went back to my hut and brought him a box of Swiss Miss instant cocoa with marshmallows and he is now hooked on hot chocolate.

Take care and keep in touch.
LT John Miller USNARMY

Hello from LT Miller March 3 2007

Hello from Afghanistan. I hope you are all doing well. It is just about one year since I reported for duty on March 6. Originally I would have been on my way home today but no such luck. Hopefully we will be leaving Afghanistan sometime in mid May. The process to becoming a civilian will then take a few weeks. That being said any packages should not be mailed after March 15 since it can take anywhere from 1 to 5 weeks to receive from the U.S. Letter mail nothing sent after April 1st. The weather has severely limited the missions that we are able to do since all the rain and snow make the dirt roads impassable. The dam should have some water behind it but other than donkey we have no way to access it until the roads dry out a little. Well above average rainfall this year and much needed. We are able to get to some of the less remote villages and have started a well and continue to work on irrigation
canals (see picture) from the mountains. School should be starting up again this month for the Afghan children. I also hope to see one more school finished in Kalehkarchun that is supposedly making progress but I have not been able to get down there to check on it.

I was able to take a 4-day R&R pass to Qatar. It took about 10 days with travel from Herat to Bagram to Qatar so it passed a good chunk of time. I just missed Vice President Cheney at Bagram but have heard the news make a big deal out of the main gate suicide bombing. Unfortunately it happens quite often and if anyone thinks that it was planned by the Taliban or Al Qaeda because the VP was there they are crazy. Just lucky timing. Unfortunately our American press gave credence to the terrorist's claims that it was planned because of the VP. The press seems to be lured rather easily into reporting on terrorist's propaganda. Really sad to see how little actual reporting takes place. Makes me real skeptical of any story I hear on anything now. The greatest failure in the war on terror is the fact that we let the terrorist propaganda machine work, which allows them to recruit even more insane people to
their cause. Lots of changes coming and everyone seems to have an apparent new idea what to do. I actually have a plan of my own that would be less costly and require fewer people but am having a hard time getting the President and Congress to listen. They are too busy accusing each other of not doing anything. Once again I will put the political commentary on hold until next time.

One new task being implemented is to train recruits locally in Herat. I had the pleasure to eat lunch with them today and it was very interesting. First they were amazed that an officer and an American would eat with them. For some reason there is a taboo about getting to know the Afghan enlisted. It is a class thing. I felt pretty old because they were all about 18 years old. Very motivated and I hope they keep it up because at some point the Afghans will have to be more motivated than
us if this is ever going to work out. It is also the first group of Afghans that I have been able to get to clean up after themselves and to stand in a line. Progress is slow but I guarantee you that this is a big step in instilling some kind of pride and discipline in the Afghan Army. These young men do not have the curse of being trained under corrupt and undisciplined warlords like the older Afghan soldiers. I think this gives the American drill sergeants a clean slate. This is a positive not seen on the news.

My favorite picture this update is of the little boy with the sucker. He is probably about 5 years old. We were at his village working on a well when I noticed him all by himself just watching. It was a rare moment because no other children were near me because they were all getting candy from some other Americans. I reached in my pocket and gave him a sucker and he had no idea what to do with it. He just looked at it. I motioned to put it in his mouth and he did, wrapper and all. I took it and unwrapped it and gave it back to him and he had the biggest smile on his face. Hard to see because of the way my buddy taking the picture was positioned. Hard to believe as an American but I don't think this child ever had a sucker before. I would like to close on wishing the best little boy in the world a happy 3rd birthday, my son Jack.

Take care and keep in touch.
LT John Miller USNARMY